The strangest thing
05-11-2010 | 10:32 AM
#1
Thread Starter
Member
My Feedback: (6)
Joined: Dec 2008
Posts: 76
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
From: amherstburg,
ON, CANADA
The strangest thing
After flying my pz Trojan last year as a trainer I graduated to a glow powered Dazzler, Pulse and now a Cap 580, I am powering the cap with a brand new O.S 55ax, I am on my fourth flight with no incidences yet,Now for the strange part, After fueling and priming the plane for the first flight of the day, I put the glow lighter on and hit it with the starter, I heard the engine start to catch so I removed the starter, well the engine popped and stopped, My buddy who was helping me said "is that grass burning?" So we rolled the plane back and sure enough right under the pitts pipes, the grass and fuel was on fire, He said in all his years that was a first, He said he saw a molten glob of fuel fall out....at first he thought he was seeing things! The plane ran fine and I put 4 good flights on her...but all day the talk was about the fire....this ever happen to anyone before? And how the heck would you put the fire out if the plane caught!
05-11-2010 | 11:01 AM
#2
Senior Member
RE: The strangest thing
Not unusual, you are working with a flammable liquid after all. My daughters control line plane caught fire and scortched it a little. We just named it Bernie .
05-11-2010 | 11:20 AM
#5
Senior Member
RE: The strangest thing
ORIGINAL: thorn247
After flying my pz Trojan last year as a trainer I graduated to a glow powered Dazzler, Pulse and now a Cap 580, I am powering the cap with a brand new O.S 55ax, I am on my fourth flight with no incidences yet,Now for the strange part, After fueling and priming the plane for the first flight of the day, I put the glow lighter on and hit it with the starter, I heard the engine start to catch so I removed the starter, well the engine popped and stopped, My buddy who was helping me said ''is that grass burning?'' So we rolled the plane back and sure enough right under the pitts pipes, the grass and fuel was on fire, He said in all his years that was a first, He said he saw a molten glob of fuel fall out....at first he thought he was seeing things! The plane ran fine and I put 4 good flights on her...but all day the talk was about the fire....this ever happen to anyone before? And how the heck would you put the fire out if the plane caught!
After flying my pz Trojan last year as a trainer I graduated to a glow powered Dazzler, Pulse and now a Cap 580, I am powering the cap with a brand new O.S 55ax, I am on my fourth flight with no incidences yet,Now for the strange part, After fueling and priming the plane for the first flight of the day, I put the glow lighter on and hit it with the starter, I heard the engine start to catch so I removed the starter, well the engine popped and stopped, My buddy who was helping me said ''is that grass burning?'' So we rolled the plane back and sure enough right under the pitts pipes, the grass and fuel was on fire, He said in all his years that was a first, He said he saw a molten glob of fuel fall out....at first he thought he was seeing things! The plane ran fine and I put 4 good flights on her...but all day the talk was about the fire....this ever happen to anyone before? And how the heck would you put the fire out if the plane caught!
I happened several times to me with 09 and even an Enya .15 engine. The cox 09 was not muffled but the .15 was. Either one spit enough burning alcohol (which is nearly invisible BTW) out the exhaust to catch the wood on fire. In fact I couldn't hardly tell what was happening except I smelled wood burning and then saw it scorching
05-11-2010 | 11:52 AM
#6
RE: The strangest thing
Internal combustion engines, like yours, can produce the last portion of the combustion externally.
This happens mainly for rich mixes of air and fuel, in which the propagation of the flame is much slower than for a proper mix.
That flame starts at the plug and propagates like a front wave thru the combustion chamber until it reaches the head of the piston.
Ideally, that should happen before the piston is forced down by the high pressure gasses and it opens the exhaust port.
This happens mainly for rich mixes of air and fuel, in which the propagation of the flame is much slower than for a proper mix.
That flame starts at the plug and propagates like a front wave thru the combustion chamber until it reaches the head of the piston.
Ideally, that should happen before the piston is forced down by the high pressure gasses and it opens the exhaust port.
